Drink driver jailed for six years after
baby girl died following village car crash

Published:10:20Saturday 19 May 2012

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A DRINK driver who caused the death of a baby girl born 20 days after a crash in which her pregnant mother survived has been jailed for six years.

Gurim Pajova, a Kosovan refugee who had no licence or insurance, was almost three times over the limit after an all day drinking session when he failed to negotiate a bend on a narrow country road crashing through a hedge before ending up in a field.

Lincoln Crown Court was told that his passenger Sarah Miles, 23, suffered seat belt bruising to the area of her abdomen where her unborn child was lying in the womb.

That set off a series of events which led to the baby, Nicole Miles, losing her life just 25 minutes after she was born at Grimsby Hospital.

Miss Miles, from Grimsby, was 24 weeks into her pregnancy when the baby was born and the child’s death was directly as a result of the premature birth which doctors said was in turn due to the injuries her mother received in the crash.

Pajova was arrested and after being summonsed to appear in court he then disappeared only to be arrested as he was leaving the country on a Eurolines bus heading for France. Pajova was travelling on a fake Slovakian Passport when officials stopped him at Folkestone and claimed he was going to visit friends.

Gordon Aspden, prosecuting, said: “Without the car crash baby Nicole would not have died in the way she did.”

Pajova was breath tested at the scene of the crash at Covenham St Bartholomew, with the reading showing 95 mgs of alcohol per 100 mls of breath compared to the legal limit of 35 mgs. Pajova was a friend of both Miss Miles and her brother and not the father of the baby. Miss Miles later told police: “I thought he was sober when we got in the car.”

Pajova, 24, of no fixed address, was convicted of causing the death of baby Nicole Miles by careless driving while unfit through drink following the collision on March 28 2010. He was also found guilty of causing death by driving while uninsured, while driving without a licence and failing to provide a specimen of urine. Pajova admitted a further charge of possession of a false passport. Pajova did not give evidence. He admitted driving with excess alcohol and without either a licence or insurance but denied the crash contributed to the death of baby Nicole.

Judge Sean Morris jailed Pajova for six years and banned him from driving for five years.

Joanne Staples, defending, said Pajova had a difficult life having grown up in war conditions in Kosova. Miss Staples said Pajova arrived in the UK at the age of 14 smuggled in on the back of a lorry and later was fostered out after being taken into care. “He knows he should not have been driving in the first place.”